Āyatụllah Jāvadi Amoli's Theory of Religious Science: Investigation on its Principles, Essence and Answers to Criticisms

Today, the idea of expansioning of religious science is known not only in Iran and the Islamic world, but also in the Western philosophy. The "possibility of religious science" discussion has a history of more than two centuries; and its roots grew from the beginning of the discussion of the separation of science and religion and the confrontation between human science and Christian wisdom in the West, and the result was the marginalization of religion for a century. This ideaology has created sects in the Western and Islamic world in the field of science expansion, which are mainly divided into three standpoints. In the expansion of science, a group has given originality to naqli (narration) knowledge, a group to human knowledge (experimental sciences), and the third group has confirmed two standpoints and considered the way to acquire knowledge to be both intellect (áql) and narration (naql). Ayatollah Javadi Amoli, who is one of the sages in this field, considers the third standpoint valid and has emphasized its validity in his numerous books. This article investigates the principles, nature and possibility of religious science from the standpoint of Ayatollah Javadi Amoli with a descriptive-analytical method along with some criticisms on this. According to Ayatollah Javadi Amoli`s view, if science is science and not pure illusion and hypothesis, it will never become un-Islamic; therefore, the expansion of religious science is not only possible but also necessary.